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Forest for the Trees is a public mural project based in the Pacific Northwest with the goal of engaging the community in the process of art-making. In the summer of 2014, contemporary artists from around the globe and local artists from Portland convened to collaborate and create murals for one week. Over the course of this week, the creative process was shared with the community and the entirety of Portland as outdoor murals emerged around the city.

Taken from the old adage “can’t see the forest for the trees”, FFTTNW intends to broaden appreciation for the creativity that surrounds us. For Band, this project is an ongoing favorite because it allows us to collaborate with a number of the visiting artists and get out from behind the desk and put some paint on walls, and we are honored to have had the ability to work on FFTT since its inception.

For the brand development of the 2014 event, we wanted to give fresh breath and new life to the meticulously-developed identity that we completed the year before. So, in addition to bringing back the FFTT script we carefully carved into a northwest tree, we stripped the color from the brand and let the simplicity of stark contrast do the talking. Black and white suits the woods well.

To help the event garner public support, the Hellion Gallery in downtown Portland hosted another pop-up shop and dinner to fundraise. Additionally, we launched a successful Indie-GoGo campaign to really get the city excited. Our NW hat collaboration with Ebbets Field Flannels from last year was so popular we couldn’t resist bringing it back in black.

#FFTTNW

As the festival progressed, we also had the chance to paint some walls, most noteably a gigantic, typographic piece on SE Division by Zach. Check out some of the painting progress here.
All of the artists’ process was beautifully catalogued by the public and the artists’ own observances with the hashtag #ffttnw, check it out here.